By James Hill
Special to The Star-Herald
For the last month we’ve been using Orion to learn our way about the winter sky. The days are getting longer now, and spring is on the way. We have about 90 minutes more daylight now than we did when winter started on Dec. 21. We’re also about a million miles farther from the Sun than in December. Remember that what causes the seasons is not how far we are from the Sun, but the tilt of the Earth giving us more and less hours of sunlight per day. But, why is the Earth tilted? That’s a question we’ll get to in a future issue.
So, let’s wrap up our use of Orion to find two more winter constellations. Using Orion’s belt, we found Taurus and Canis major. Last time we saw that Gemini can be located by extending a line through the two bright stars of Orion’s left leg and right shoulder (see the chart).
Now let’s find Auriga (or-EYE-ga), the Charioteer. Around 7 p.m. Orion should be about due south and the rectangle of his body will be vertical. Follow a line through the middle of Orion from bottom to top and keep going until you are looking almost straight overhead. The bright star near the zenith is Capella. The constellation Auriga is a pentagon of stars with Capella at the top. The bottom star of the pentagon, Nath, is actually the upper horn of Taurus. Capella is the sixth brightest star in the sky and is actually a pair of very close together giant stars. The name Capella means “she goat”, and, if there is no Moon in the sky, you might see three dim stars in a triangle below and to the right of Capella that are called the “kids.”
Now before we find our last constellation, go back and find and name the constellations and first magnitude stars we’ve learned so far. (Repetitio mater studiorum: repetition is the mother of learning.) Re-find Orion with Rigel and Betelgeuse, Taurus with Aldebaran, Canes Major with Sirius, Gemini with Castor and Pollux, and Auriga with Capella. Good, you’re getting it!
Our last winter constellation is Canis Minor, the small hunting dog. The best way to find it is to look for the only bright star on a line to the left of the two stars at the top of Orion (chart!). The bright star is Procyon (PRO-see-on) and you’ll only see one other star making up this pattern. Procyon means “before the dog” and Egyptians saw it rising before their sacred star, Sirius.
The bright stars we’ve talked about form a hexagon around Betelgeuse. See if you can visualize it. Amateur astronomers call this the “Winter Hexagon”. See https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/inside-winter-hexagon/ for more.
Next time we’ll turn around and begin looking at the northern sky to learn about and find the big and little dippers and relate their stories.
For questions or comments: James Hill, Mississippi NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. jhill6333@gmail.com
